It’s happening a lot more these days, this blurring of the lines between dystopian fantasies and the world I see around me. I used to absorb those works of fiction which let me bathe in the tragic absurdity of what the world could become. It might even have seemed remotely realistic, but it was still […]

Don’t waste time walking’ & that’s like a motto for a whole generation. His voice is complacent & my vigor is vacant Both had long work days but his paid better & mine was way wetter, weather like my life too cold to not hurt, but too hot to fully freeze. We live in inbetween, […]

The first words he spoke were, “I’m dying.” Said with such unfitting nonchalance that I wasn’t sure if I had even heard it. After I offered to buy him some tea he calmly asked, “Can I tell you something I truly believe?” I nodded and he said again, “I’m dying.” I tried to gauge him–what […]

Dear _____,
You are changing. In some ways, you are blooming–becoming what you always knew you would. Except, you didn’t know precisely what that would look like or even what it was, just that you would become. So no, you’re not becoming what you always know you would, you’re becoming as you always knew you would.
You […]

A man approached me to explain something important.
He had been experiencing reality on a different plane, where his ultimate self had been freed from the layers of identity that usually served as shelter. Earlier, some kids had been throwing rocks and one almost pelted his face. He had no reaction. So absorbed was he in […]

Last Friday I hitchhiked from Madison to Minneapolis. I have too many stories, too many reflections to offer all at once. For now, here is a sketch of the first person to pick me up.

Mark is tough. He knows this. He grew up white in the Boston projects where he “learned a healthy respect for […]

Traveling broke takes more work. Today I dropped cash on new bearings for the hubs on my bike, but only spent $1.06 on food. Before that, I tried to case all the places that sell bread, but almost everyone was roundabout in telling me they didn’t trash expired stuff. I don’t know if they knew […]

This city has a different pulse than Chicago. It’s not working as hard. When I pass by, I don’t catch the reek of sweat, don’t see the pit stains, don’t hear the grunts. Madison is daydreaming. Its heartbeat is slow, and its breaths are deep. It floats along.
There was a time when I would do […]

On my way to Minneapolis. For a wedding, and conveniently timed to give me space to reflect.
The past several days have been filled with disorienting and powerful interactions that had just begun hinting at normalcy, and now I will jet from the familiar-unfamiliar to land in a soup of dichotomies: concrete and flesh, tears and […]

Here we are: orphans of truth in a society that continually casts meaning aside. We felt something inexplicable–a sense of purpose like a relic of childhood–a trailing cloud of glory that began fading long ago. Yet as we grew we could not ignore a sense of mystery shrouded beneath the rules and the routines. We […]